Watch case



T. B. WILGOX. WATGHGASE.

(No Model.)

Patnted Oct. 29, 1 95.

INVENTOR 'I? B. Wilcox,

WITNESSES:

Kw moan Y UNITED STATES- PATENT OFFICE.

THEODORE B. WVILCOX, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

WATCHCAS E.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 548,791, dated October29, 1895.

Application filed January 1'7, 1895. Serial No. 535,198. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THEODORE B. WILOOX, acitizen of the United States,residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Watchcases; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to whichit appertains to make and use the same.

The various attempts which have been made to produce a watchcase of goodappearance, substantial purity, and reasonable cost have proved for themost part abortive by reason of the fact that purchasers object to theidea of a case which is made impure either by the circumstance that apiece of brass or other base material forms the bulk of the case or thatthe case is made up of several pieces of one or the other of the noblemetals in different degrees of purity. The preference always is for ametal of substantially uniform purity, even though the case be made asthin as it can be and still resist ordinary pressure and wear. In otherwords, the various styles of plating, filling, double-stockarrangements, and so on, in which an inferior quality of metal or asolder or some base material is used as a part of the case, presentsomething which customers do not like and which it would be verydesirable to do away with. On the other hand, the well-known softness offine gold and, to a degree, also, of pure silver, has hitherto made itnecessary to construct good watchcases of such thickness of metal as tomake them cost more than men of ordinary means could afford to pay.

The invention which I have made relates to means for making watchcasesof, say, eighteen-karat gold, stiff enough even at small thicknesses todo the work required of them. I mention gold cases in particular; but itwill be understood that my invention can be applied to silver cases asWell. I accomplish the object aimed at by supplying such watchcases withribs upon the inside, preferably radiating from the center or from acircular rib surrounding the center, the ribs, whether circular orsimply following the lines of the case in a direction from center tocircumference, being calculated to form trusses, so to speak, or meansof resistance to the collapse of the cases. The ribs thus formed on oradded to the inside of a watchcase will give to the said case a rigiditywhich will be practically the same as if the whole case were made of thesame thickness that it has at the ribs. At the same time the case as awhole can be made quite thin, and a considerable saving of preciousmetal can thus be eifected. By putting the ribs upon the inside of thecase the beauty of the exterior of the case is not defaced and a lightwatchcase of small cost and fine appearance is produced. In order togain the advantage of an important saving of metal, I find that I needto place the ribs farther apart than the width of one of the said ribsat the base; otherwise too much metal will be put into the ribsthemselves. Ribs of this sort can be made in separate pieces andsoldered to the cases; but I prefer to form the ribs in one piece withthe cases by means of dies, (not herewith shown,) which are broughttogether under great pressure sufficient to upset the metal orforce itinto grooves in the dies. The metal between the ribs may becomparatively thin and still, owing to the presence of the ribs, thecase may resist ordinary pressure and the requirements of ordinaryservice in the way of wearing qualities. In fact, cases of this sort areadapted to last quite as well as much heavier cases, and they have theadvantage of being cheaper, and that, too, without any sacrifice ofgenuineness. They thus meet the wants of the average purchaser and userof watches.

and embody qualities of cheapness, lightness, and purity which have longbeen sought for without success.

I have illustrated my invention in the accompanying drawings, in whichFigure 1 is an elevation of the face of a hunting-case watch with thecase opened out. Figs. 2, 3, and 4 show the interior of watchcases withdifferent arrangements of the strengthening-ribs. Fig. 5 is a section ofa watchcase, showing the presence of ribs on the interior of thewatchcase; and Fig. 6 is a section of a made-up case, one part of whichis strengthened as per my invention.

In the drawings I have exaggerated the thickness of the ribs for thesake of clearness of illustration.

Referring to the drawings by letter, A is a huntingcase watch, and B isthe case adapted to cover the face thereof. The case is made of finegold or of silver approximately pure. The greater portion of the case isso thin that it would not ordinarily resist the pressure to which it isliable to be subjected. I mean that it would not be certain to resistsuch pressure if the whole face were of uniform thickness equal to thethickness of the greater part of it. I form, however,

preferably upon the inner side of the case, a

series of ribs extending in the form illustrated in Fig. 1 from thecenter to the edges of the case. The ribs are marked 1) b, and they areraised above the greater part of the surface for a short distance. Nowthese ribs strengthen the case to such a degree that a case otherwisetoo thin for ordinary use can be used without danger of collapse eitherby edgewise pressure or by pressure at the center of the case from theoutside. The other figures show other arrangements of ribs, some of thembeing circular, as shown at a.

My invention has no reference whatever to the development of a newdesign or pattern for Watchcases; but it is concerned with the matter ofsecuring genuineness of material, combined with adequate strength andwith such cheapness as will recommend the case to purchasers. WVhen thisrecommendation of cheapness is combined with the assurance of thegenuine quality of the metal employed, the value of my invention will bevery easily understood.

In Fig. 6 I illustrate how one might take advantage of the principleherein involved in order to make abuilt-up case. Here the outer or theinner case (it doesnt matter which) is provided with ribs 5 b,upon whichthe other part of the case as a whole rests, or there might be a rib orribs on both parts of such a built-up case. However that may be, thepart of the case having ribs would, in fact, correspond to what Ihavecalled in the claims which follow a watchcasethat is to say, such astructure would not avoid the scope of the claims in the sense which isintended to be given to the said claims.

That I claim is 1. A watch-case of precious metal having such athickness that it would be liable to collapse in common use, the samebeing provided with integral internal strengthening ribs separated byspaces greater than the width of the said ribs at their base.

2. A watch case of precious metal having such a thickness that it wouldbe liable to collapse in actual use, the same being strengthened byintegral, internal ribs radiating from a circular strengthening ribabout the center of the case.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name, in the presence of twowitnesses, this 14th day of January, A. D. 1895.

THEODORE B. WILCOX.

Witnesses:

C. L. BELOHER, G. H. STOCKBRIDGE.

